Device for catching broken threads



p 6, 1 9. c. CAILLE 2,481,197

DEVICE FOR CATCHING BROKEN THREADS Filed Jan. 23, 1947 INVENTORGrid/'10.: 6217/:

ATTORNEY Patented Sept. 6, 1949 DEVICE FOR CATCHING BROKEN THREADSCharles Caille, Winterthur, Switzerland, assignor to Sulzer Freres,Societe Anonyme, Winterthur, Switzerland Application January 23, 1947,Serial No. 123,850 In Switzerland February 9, 1946 27 Claim.

This invention relates to a device for catchin up the oncoming portionof thread after a break has occurred in .one or more running threads.The invention is characterized by a jet of air or gas directed through anozzle outlet towards the running thread and cooperating with a catchingdevice arranged beyond the running thread.

.Devices of the prior art which operate by sucking-up broken threads areeffective only to a slight depth. The air currents produced by suctionflow into a suction opening from all directions. Even at a slightdistance from such an opening the currents set up are not sufllcient tocarry a broken thread with them, since they are distributed in the formof a fan over a large field and the suction energy thus decreasesapproximately in proportion to the square of the distance from itssource. Such suction devices therefore require an extraordinarily greatquantity of air in order to be effective.

A jet of air or gas emerging from a blast opening maintains nearlyuniform energy over a considerable distance. In the device of thepresent invention, the whole flow is concentrated on a narrow zoneacross the path of the running thread, since the blast jet traversesthat space without changing its direction to any considerable extent. Ifthe thread breaks, the oncoming part will thus be entrained in a strongstream of air or gas, and can be thus blown into a suitably locatedcatching device. In consequence of the great concentration of the blasteffect, the quantity of air required for proper functioning is alsoappreciably diminished from that required by a suction device.

The blast opening is preferably formed as a nozzle, and may for instancebe connected to the delivery side .of a delivery device or to the highpressure side of a Venturi device. If the device is adopted on machineshandling threads, for instance when spinning, doubling, winding orweaving, theblast opening may be connected to the ventilating equipmentof the machine room.

The catching device may, in its simplest arrangement, be formed forinstance as a container in which the caught part of the thread isseparated from the blast jet. The catching device may also comprise apair of rollers running on each other or a conveyor belt by which thepart of the thread introduced by the blast jet is caught and led away.The catching device may also comprise a flow-through passage for the airor gas, this passage having a catching opening lying opposite to theblast opening. Such a flow through passage may be connected to the inthe passage.

delivery side or to the inlet side of a delivery device or to a spot ona Venturi arrangement. In particular when connected to the inlet side ofa delivery device, or to a low-pressure part of a Venturi arrangement,it is advisable to provide the end lying opposite the connection with anopening through which air may enter from the room and maintain acontinual conveying stream The passage of the catching device may alsohave a Venturi-like constriction of the cross-sectional area of flow inthe region of the catching opening. If the catching device is adopted onmachines for working up thread, the passage of the catching device may,like the blast openings, be connected to the ventilating device of themachine room. A separator or a filter may be connected to the passage ofthe catching device and in it the caught part of the thread is heldback.

In the case of a plurality of running threads, as for instance in amachine working-up threads, one common catching device may be providedfor each thread opposite individually arranged blast openings. Such acatching device may have a passage through which air or gas flows, andwhich has a catching opening opposite each blast opening. It isadvisable to connect passages of this kind to a delivery device, forinstance at their inlet side ,or at their delivery side, or in certaincases to a Venturi arrangement. When connected to the inlet side of adelivery device or to a low-pressure part of a Venturi arrangement, thepassage has preferably at the opposite end an opening for maintaining aconveying stream. Passages of catching devices for several runningthreads may for instance have a plurality oi Venturi-like constrictionsthrough which air or gas flows one after the other, each constrictionbeing arranged in the neighbourhood of a catching opening.

Selected elements, at least, of that part of the device through whichthe air or gas flows may be made of a transparent material in order tobe able to supervise the working more easily. Devices may also beprovided which make the air or the gas electrically conducting or, atleast, charge certain parts of the catching device electrically, inorder to avoid disturbing influences from electrically charged threadsand electrically charged anus-r 3 running thread of a simple deviceaccording to the invention for catching up a single thread;

Fig. 2 is a view similar to Fig. l, but illustrating a modified form ofcatching up device;

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic perspective view of a device similar to that ofFig. 1 employing a further modified form of catching up device;

Fig. 4 is a plan on'a plane perpendicular to the running thread of adevice according to the invention for catching up a single thread in aflow-through form .of catching up device;

Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 4, but illustrating a modified form offlow-through catching up device;

Fig. 6 is also a view similar to Fig. 4, but illustrating a furthermodified form of flow through catching up device;

Fig. 7 is a plan on a plane perpendicular to the running threads of adevice according to the invention for catching up a plurality ofthreads; 7

Fig. 8 is a view similar to Fig. 7, but illustrating a modified form ofmultiple device;

Fig. 9 is also a view similar to Fig. 7, but illustrating a furthermodified form of multiple device; and

Fig. 10 illustrates the adaptation on a spinning machine of a deviceaccording to the inventlon.

The nozzle i (Fig. 1) has a blast opening 2 from which the air jet 3issues. The outlet of the blast opening is directed towards a thread 5run ning in the direction of the arrow 4 and against a thread catchingdevice 8 arranged behind the thread. When the thread is running, thereis a risk of its breaking. After breaking, the-part of the threadarriving at the break would continue to run on, but could no longerreach its proper destination. It would, on the contrary, be snarledsomewhere or possibly be carried along by some other part and therebycause breakdowns in the working or at least annoying disturbances. Inorder to prevent this drawback, the part of the thread 5a continuing tocome on freely after breaking is entrained in the air jet 3 and blowntowards the opening 1 of the catching device 6. This catching device isdesigned as a receiver in the form of a cyclone in which the caught partof the thread 5b is separated from the blast stream and lies on the wallof the container.

Even if the broken part of the thread does not at once come into the airjet 3, or should be pulled out of it by some disturbance, it will beagain sucked up by the flow phenomena at the edge of the jet andintroduced into the jet. The air flowing into the container 6 may passout through the opening 8 after being separated from the caught part ofthe thread.

In the catching device according to Fig. 2, a pair of rollers 9, l0,running on each other, is adopted. The blast jet 3 is directed againstthe nip ll of the rollers. There it cannot pass through between therollers, but distributes itself towards both sides and flows over thesurface of the rollers. The broken part 5a of the thread is howeverprojected against the nip of the rollers in consequence of its inertia,is seized by them and led between them. After passing through, it runsfurther with the surface of the roller 10 until it falls in consequenceof its weight into the collecting holder I2; 4

In the catching device according to Fig. 3, the blast jet 3 is directedagainst a conveyer belt I3 which runs round the rollers l4 in the sense01' '4 the arrows. The broken thread part in is, in consequence of itsinertia, projected against the surface of the belt II, to which it canadhere.

The belt conveys the caught part of the thread So out of the normal pathof the running thread to a place where it can be removed by hand or bymeans of a suitable device not shown,

In the catching device according to Fig. 4, the catching device isformed as a passage l5, through which air flows in the direction of thearrows. The thread I6 runs through from above to below and is shown inthe illustrated projection only as a point. After a break, therunningofl' part lSa of the thread is caught by the jet l1 and led withit into the catching opening ll of the passage i5 which is situatedopposite the blast opening i9. In the passage itself the caught part Nbof the thread is carried along further by the air stream.

At the end, the passage i5 is connected to the delivery side of adelivery device 20. This delivery device is formed as a centrifugal fanwhich withdraws air from the room and introduces it at a higher pressureinto the passage i5. At the other end of the passage IS a separatingdevice 2i is connected in which the caught part iiib of the thread isseparated from the air stream. The thread may for instance lie on thewall of the separating container, whilst the air is led again into theroom through the opening 22. The nozzle 23 is also connected to adelivery device 24, which too withdraws air from the room and leads itat a higher pressure to the nozzle 23. The two delivery devices 20 and24 are of such dimensions that the pressure in the nozzle 23 is higherthan the pressure in the passage l5, so that the air jet l'i passesthrough the room and enters through the opening into the passage I 5against the pressure within the passage.

In the passage 25 of the catching device shown in Fig. 5, a Venturi-likeconstriction of the crosssectional area of flow is provided in theneighbourhood of the catching opening 26. The wall 2! built into thepassage 25 produces a constriction of the cross-sectional area of flowat the catching opening. Because of the acceleration of the speed causedthereby, the air flowing through has at this spot a diminished pressure,so that the entering blast jet 28 produced by the delivery device 29 andnozzle 30 meets with a diminished resistance. In the followingdiffusor-like part of the passage, the velocity is again converted intopressure. A separating device 3! for holding back the broken thread 32is connected to the passage. From it the air freed from the thread andfrom dust and fluff enters into the delivery device 33. The deliverydevice is formed as a centrifugal blower and as such may serve forseparating out fine dust.

The nozzle 34 and the passage 35 may also, as shown in Fig. 6, beconnected to one common delivery device 36. First of all the airrequired for the jet 31 issues through the blast opening II. The rest ofthe air passes further through the passage 39 and causes a lowering ofthe pressure at the spot 40 in consequence of its inertia; this drop inpressure causes more'air to flow through the passage 35. To make up forthe air thus flowing through the passage 35, air, in addition to the airintroduced by the delivery device, enters the passage 35 from thesurrounding space through the opening 4|. Principally the air introducedthrough the opening 4| maintains a conveying stream continually in thepassage 35, and this stream, after the threadbreaks, draws the thecatching device, as shown in Fig. 7, may have one blast opening for eachthread. The threads 45 run through in the normal direction from above tobelow and are seen in the projection as points. Opposite the blastopenings 46 is one common catching device 41. This catching deviceconsists of a passage 48 through which the air flows and which has acatching opening 48 opposite each blast opening 48. The nozzles 58 areconnected to one common pipe which receives compressed air from theventilating delivery duct 52 of the room in which the device is placed.A quantity of air flows out of the ventilating delivery duct 52 throughthe pipe 53 past the place 54 leading to the passage 48 and creates afall in pressure there in consequence of the inertia effect. Theconveying stream thereby produced in the passage 48 serves to lead awaythe thread parts which are caught and also the blast air through thepassage 55 into the separator 5B.

The catching device illustrated in Fig. 8 consists of a passage 51 whichis connected through a separator 58 to the inlet side of the deliverydevice 59. The blast nozzles 68 are connected to the delivery device 8|through a common piping 63.. The passage 62 also contains a device 64 inwhich the air led to the blast openings is made electrically conductingby means of electric sparks. The device 84 is connected by theconductingwires 65 to an electrical device 66 producing the necessarytension. The electrical device 61 is connected to the electrical mainline by the conducting-wires 61. Electrically conducting air is able tofree particles of dust, flufi and threads from an electric charge. Inthis way it is possible to prevent parts endeavouring to get away fromeach other because of bearing a. charge of the same sign and thusrendering the catching operation more diflicult. Further, by means of anelectric charging device 68 connected by the conducting wires 69 to theelectrical device 56, the walls of the passages 51 may be electricallycharged. In this way, for instance, an unlike charge on dust, particles,fluff and thread, may be compensated for. i

If the passage 18 of the catching device is connected to a jet blower4|, as shown in Fig. 9, the compressed air may be introduced by means ofone single delivery device 12, which is suflicient for the nozzles I3 inthe passage 14 and for maintaining the necessary conveying stream in thepassage 18 with the catching openings I1. The exhaust air from the jetblower passes into the separator 15 and then issues through the passagesl8.

The spinning machine according to Fig. has a drawing means 18 in whichthe thread 19 coming from a bobbin B0 is stretched. After thisstretching operation, the thread I8 passes through a guide device 8! onto the spinning bobbin 82 and is there spun and at the same time woundup. If the thread breaks in the drawing mechanism, the part of thethread following will no longer be wound up by the spinning bobbin 82.It will rather be caught on neighbouring thread guides and threadbobbins of the spinning machine and cause trouble there which maypossibly lead to further threads breaking. In this way it is possiblethat the breaking of a single thread may cause breaks in a whole seriesof other thread paths before the trouble can be removed. To preventthis, a nozzle 83 with blast opening 84 is provided for each threadpath. The outlet of the blast opening is directed against the'runningthread 19 and the catching opening 85 of the passage 86 arranged behindthe thread. The blast air is led to the nozzle 83 through the passage81. If the thread breaks, the broken part of the thread is led by theblast jet 88 into the opening 85 of the conveying passage 86, where itis caught by an air current and carried away. In this way it cannotcause any further trouble. Preferably the passage 81 may be connected tothe ventilating device of the spinning room. The ventilating device inits turn may have an air conditioning plant. so that air which isconditioned and possibly also rendered electrically conducting may beblown into the neighbourhood of the thread path. Naturally the passage81 has a separate nozzle for each of the separate thread tracks-which asusual in spinning machines are arranged in a large number beside eachotherand each of these nozzles has opposite it an opening l8 leading tothe conveying passage IS.

The catching device according to the invention may also be adopted ondoubling machines, winding machines, looms and in general on allfilament-working and filament-preparing machines in which there is arisk of breaking the filament moving in any given moving filament path.By the term filaments just used is here to be understood not only singlefilaments of natural or artificial fiber, metal, or mineral composition,but also finished and unfinished threads and yarns in the generallyunderstood sense in the textile industry in connection with which theforegoing detailed description has been given. The term filaments isalso intended to comprehend flexible twisted or braided cords, narrowwoven or knitted tapes and ribbons handled on analogous machinery.

If the filament material in question is very inflammable, an inert gas,for instance nitrogen, may be used instead of air to guide away thebroken part. In this case it is also particularly -'recommended to makethe air or the gas electrically conducting, so that electric charges maynot accumulate at any place long enough to cause sparking.

The blast opening may be designed as a simple opening in a passage, oras the opening of a noz- .zle or of a simple conducting pipe. As supplydevices to introduce compressed air or to lead away air, jet deliverydevices, all types of fans, for instance centrifugal or axial fans, maybe adopted. In addition to broken filaments, any dust and fiufi givenoil by the threads may also be led away.

I claim:

1. A filament catching device for catching up the oncoming part of anormally taut running filament after abnormal breaking comprising ablast opening directed towards the running fila ment for producing acontinuous gaseous jet traversing the path of said filament and acatching device arranged beyond said path opposite said opening.

2. The device of claim 1 in which the blast opening is formed as anozzle.

3. The device of claim 1 further comprising a delivery device the outletside of which is connected to the blast opening.

4. The device of claim 1 further comprising a Venturi-device the highpressure side of which is connected to the blast opening.

5. The device 01' claim 1 in which the catching device is formed as acontainer in which the caught part of the filament is separated from theJet.

6. The device of claim I in which the catching device comprises tworollers running on each other in a direction to cause the motion of thenip to be away from the Jet.

7. The device of claim 1 in which the catching device comprises aconveyer belt having a surface to which the filament will adhere.

8. A filament catching device for catching up the oncoming part of anormally taut running filament after abnormal breaking comprising ablast opening directed towards the running filament for producing acontinuous gaseous jet traversing the path of said filament and acatching device arranged beyond said path opposite said opening, saidcatching device comprising a passage for the through flow of a gaseousstream and an opening in said passage opposite the blast opening.

9. The device of claim 8 in which the catching device additionallycomprises a delivery device the outlet side of which is connected to thepassage.

10. The device of claim 8 in which the catching device additionallycomprises a delivery device the inlet side of which is connected to thepassage.

11. The device of claim 10 in which the passage is provided with anopening to the atmosphere at the end opposite its connection to thedelivery device.

12. The device of claim 8 in which the catching device additionallycomprises a Venturi device the low-pressure side of which is connectedto the passage.

13. The device of claim 12 in which the passage is provided with anopening to the atmosphere at the end opposite its connection to theVenturi device.

14. The device of claim 8 in which the passage is provided with aVenturi-like constriction of its cross-sectional area. of fiow in thevicinity of the catching opening.

15. The device of claim 14 in which the passage is provided with aplurality of catching openings and associated constrictions.

16. The device of claim 8 in which the catching device additionallycomprises a. separator connected to the passage in which the brokenfilament is separated from the gaseous stream.

17. The device of claim 8 in which the catching device additionallycomprises a gas permeable filter fitted in the passage for holding upthe broken filament.

18. A filament catching device for catching up the oncoming parts of aplurality oi normally taut running filaments after the abnormal breakingof any or all of them comprising separate blast openings directed towardeach running filament for producing a continuous gaseous jet traversingthe path of such filament and a common catching device arranged beyondsaid paths opposite said openings.

19. The device of claim 18 in which the catching device comprises asingle passage for the through flow of a gaseous stream and a separatecatching opening therein opposite each blast opening.

20. The device of claim 19 in which the catching device additionallycomprises a delivery device the inlet side of which is connected to thepassage.

21. The device of claim 20 in which the passage is provided with anopening to the atmosphere at the end opposite its connection to thedelivery device.

22. The device of claim 18 in which the catching device comprises asingle passage for the through flow of a gaseous stream, a separatecatching opening therein opposite each blast opening, and a Venturidevice the low-pressure side of which is connected to the passage.

23. The device of claim 22 in which the passage is provided with anopening to the atmosphere at the end opposite to the Venturi device.

24. The device of claim 1 further comprising a device for rendering thegas of the jet electrically conductive.

25. The device of claim 1 further comprising a device for electricallycharging some portion of the catching device.

26. In combination, in filament handling machinery, a normally tautrunning filament, a continuous gaseous jet traveling in the path of saidfilament and a catching device arranged beyond said path in the streamof said jet.

27. The device of claim 8 in which the passage for the through-flow of agaseous stream is made of a transparent material.

CHARLES CAILLE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,207,105 Payne July 9, 19402,250,866 Hewton July 29, 1941 2,431,726 Bechtler Dec. 2, 1947

